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Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Pinewood Derby Can be a good idea

Seriously, I think the most anticipated and the most dreaded part of cub scouts here in the United States is the pinewood derby. (The boys are supposed to make their own cars from a kit and then race them. Unfortunately, quite often the Dad's end up doing most of it.)It is so much work and every boy is just sure his car is going to win but not every car can be a winner and it's so disappointing when they're not. Plus, not every boy has a dad with computerized power tools and an Engineering degree.But I think our Cub Master came up with the perfect solution.The boys built their cars the night of the Derby, at the church where our pack meetings are held 1 1/2 hours before the races started.Brilliant!Why have I not heard of this before?The boys were given a paper with 9 car designs they could choose from or they could draw their own design on the grid provided on the paper. Then the papers were handed back in about a week or so before the derby. Three men in our neighborhood cut all of the cars out then the night of the derby the boys sanded, decorated and applied weights and wheels.Then the races were on.I've never seen so many close races before in my life. All of the boys were so happy to see who won and there was not one single tear shed that night. It was great!

Doodle's car was awesome and he won the "Best Design" award. He was so happy. So were we.

I can honestly say that I highly recommend this approach to the Pinewood Derby. If you think you'd like to try it out and would like some more in depth information about the way it was run feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help you out.

Enjoy handmade but just don't have the time to do it yourself. Give my shop a try.

My Family Confections

If you smile a lot now, when you're old you'll look like you're smiling all the time. Even if you're not. It's really much better to have people think you're always happy than to say, "She's not mean that's just her face."

Pickles are nature's way of saying, "Enjoy a cucumber this winter."

The science fair is not called "The Evil Science Fair" for a reason. We really should avoid blowing things up. That means no dry-ice bombs even if you claim to be doing research on greenhouse gases.

Mold doesn't grow that fast! If it did we'd all be covered in it and/or be dead. (Said in response to a daughter thinking mold had grown on her ice-cream in less than five minutes and she was going to get sick and die from it.)

Lift your arms so I can hit you. (A sister said to a brother)

Don't eat the cat food.

Don't eat dog food!

Fair is fair. If you get to shoot an apple off your brother's head, he get's to shoot an apple off your head.

Take the fork out of your nose!

Bubba-nick? Do you mean Bubonic? As in Bubonic Plague?

No you won't get bubba-nick, I mean the bubonic plague.

You should name your first child Bubba-nick!

You can not get botulism from drinking out of your cup that has been setting on the counter for 2 minutes.

You don't have throat cancer.

You don't have leprosy.

It's rough when my fans don't adore me.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hypothermia.

Mountain men don't wear short shorts.

Do you REALLY HAVE to talk like Tarzan at the table?

DROP the monkey!

There IS a striking similarity between the "Cowboy" dance and the "Potty" dance. It's easy to get them confused.